Hey guys, I have been applying at multiple agencies all around me with no luck. I know that the hiring process is very competitive.

I have gone through several agencies with no luck, I have Been told that there were more qualified applicants then me. Im guessing people with military back ground and more schooling then me. I currently only have an AA and no military background. I have not been in trouble and for the most part my background has been clean, very small things like couple parking tickets. Smoked weed a couple times in tenth grade of high school and that's it no other drugs.

So my question is what would help my chances in getting hired? Lately I have been thinking of going back to school and get my BA. I have also been thinking of joining the army reserves. I don't take this decision lightly I want to serve my country but i feel the discipline an traianing would help me in life and hopefully better my chances. I know that LE is my career that is what I want to do and it has always been my dream. I'm not taking a couple agencies turning me down stop me from betterig myself and applying other places bi am serious enough that I have even thought of moving out of state to other agencies.

Any input or thoughts would be great. I'm always open to comments and suggestions to better myself.

Watch come Wednesday. It's going to be a landslide. Forget the polls, look at the census data, trump screwed up. Tell you what though if trump had made peace with woman and hispancis he could have pulled this off. But he kept at em. Just couldn't shut up.

Are you a academy graduate? If you put yourself through the police academy you will go from several agencies available to you to just about all of California available to you. There will be lots of openings in the central valley within the next 2 years, Fresno Police and Fresno Sheriff will be hiring 100s but you going to need to be a academy graduate.

If a academy graduate have you thought about becoming a reserve deputy sheriff / police officer? I was a reserve first to get myself going full time direction.

Have you ever thought of applying for law enforcement non sworn jobs such as dispatch? I know several friends that got hired dispatchers got in with a department and got hired. Several agencies also reworked there schedule to allow them to go the police academy while still working full time.

Also how old are you? Age could be a factor a lot of agencies would rather hire a 26 years old compared to a 22 year old.

Getting your bachelor's degree is only going to help you in life and long run. A lot of officers get injuried and have to retire, get fired, etc. so if you have a bachelor's degree to fall back on you will be in a better spot. If your lucky and don't get hurt you will need a degree to promote.

Like everyone in the above threads are saying, age is a huge factor. Also, do you owe a lot of money or/and have bad credit? Those are factors you have to take into consideration. Also, are you applying to the larger departments or small ones? Larger department will have more opportunities. Education is also good, but, are you economically okay so you can go back to school? Also, being in the armed forces can set you back or even get you fired. Many close friends in the infantry and marines quit or got fired because they got called back for active duty and they couldn't handle the stress of both careers.

Getting your bachelor's degree is only going to help you in life and long run. A lot of officers get injuried and have to retire, get fired, etc. so if you have a bachelor's degree to fall back on you will be in a better spot. If your lucky and don't get hurt you will need a degree to promote.

Not exactly selling the career with this

To the OP, why do you feel you have to be a LEO? Do you come from a LEO family? Speaking of family, do you want to have one someday? Think carefully about how your choice in career will affect your family. It's not just a career, it is a way of life.

I considered a career in law enforcement about 20 years ago, but I took a long hard look at how growing up in a LEO-related family affected my upbringing, my family, etc as well as those LEO families we knew. I decided it wasn't worth it, and I don't just mean the safety factor. LEO dads are not like other dads.

Be sure it's what you want. And have a backup plan in case you either change your mind, wash out, or otherwise have to change careers.

I'll tell you what though, friends of our family, the wife was an assistant chief probation officer (not entirely accurate on the job title I think, it was about 25 years ago now) and her husband was former sheriff deputy on disability retirement. Really nice guy, would give you the shirt off his back, always smiling. Not like most LEOs I've known since. He ended up going back to school and becoming a registered nurse.

I bet it wouldn't hurt to have a nursing degree or other paramedic-related degree in your pursuit of a LEO career for obvious reasons. And it would be great to fall back on as well.

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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.

Thank you guys for all the feed back. I am currently 24 years old turning 25 this November.

I don't come from a LE background but ever since I was a little kid I have always wanted to do this or a career. I like te fast pace aspect and always new things. I know there are crappy things about the job. It's not always going to be car chases and shoot outs.

My work experience are a couple part time jobs. I started working when I was 16 and have a total of 4 jobs. At all of them I was there for over a year to a year and a half.

If I wanted to put myself through an academy how would I go about doing that? Is there any websites you guys could point me to?? I know when applying several agencies only wanted lateral transfers or post graduates. Puttin myself through the academy would help me out.

I applied to mainly larger agencies figuring the bigger the agency the better of a chance I would have since they would have more room and more money. I applied to lapd la sheriffs Ventura sheriffs and city of Oxnard I was told by lapd Oxnard and Ventura that there were better candidates then me. La sheriffs are on a hiring freeze right now. I was lookin to Northern California to see if agencies have openings.

To the OP, why do you feel you have to be a LEO? Do you come from a LEO family? Speaking of family, do you want to have one someday? Think carefully about how your choice in career will affect your family. It's not just a career, it is a way of life.

I considered a career in law enforcement about 20 years ago, but I took a long hard look at how growing up in a LEO-related family affected my upbringing, my family, etc as well as those LEO families we knew. I decided it wasn't worth it, and I don't just mean the safety factor. LEO dads are not like other dads.

Be sure it's what you want. And have a backup plan in case you either change your mind, wash out, or otherwise have to change careers.

I'll tell you what though, friends of our family, the wife was an assistant chief probation officer (not entirely accurate on the job title I think, it was about 25 years ago now) and her husband was former sheriff deputy on disability retirement. Really nice guy, would give you the shirt off his back, always smiling. Not like most LEOs I've known since. He ended up going back to school and becoming a registered nurse.

I bet it wouldn't hurt to have a nursing degree or other paramedic-related degree in your pursuit of a LEO career for obvious reasons. And it would be great to fall back on as well.

Can you describe LEO related family? Also, what is there to sell. You either want the job or you don't. You either qualify or you don't. I don't think this job should require selling to anyone.

I don't have a bad background that I believe would dq me from any department and i have excellent credit. I bought my own car and paid it off early I have also never been late on any type of CC payment I actually always pay more then the required

As someone else pointed out, becoming a reserve police officer or deputy Sheriff might be what you need to get your foot in the door. You'd receive the training, a P.O.S.T. certificate after working the minimum amount of hours, experience as a "part-time" LEO, and something positive to talk about when you test for a full-time position.

During my 31 years as a full-time LEO, I worked with numerous reserve officers, and several went on to become full-time officers (One of them wasn't sworn in as a full-time LEO until he was in his mid-50's, and only after going through the full police academy training!).

Military service wouldn't hurt, either.

The thing of it is, the main driving factor has to be your full commitment. If you WANT something bad enough, you don't just quit after a few set-backs.

I considered a career in law enforcement about 20 years ago, but I took a long hard look at how growing up in a LEO-related family affected my upbringing, my family, etc as well as those LEO families we knew. I decided it wasn't worth it, and I don't just mean the safety factor. LEO dads are not like other dads.??????

I considered a career in law enforcement about 20 years ago, but I took a long hard look at how growing up in a LEO-related family affected my upbringing, my family, etc as well as those LEO families we knew. I decided it wasn't worth it, and I don't just mean the safety factor. LEO dads are not like other dads.??????

It's not the job that most people think it's going to be. If you like trying to do your job with one arm tied behind your back law enforcement is for you. Talk to some trusted officers with some time on the job and they will fill you in.

LOL thought he wanted opinions from LEO's not people who never worked a day in the field.

To the OP, Consider what you have to offer departments. Many departments are moving away from hiring non academy graduates. It saves them a ton of money and opens the pool up quite a bit. There are quite a few academies available to those who want to go part time or even stop life for 6 months and go full time.
Secondly if you cant do that finishing up your BA will help some.

thank you guys for all the info and help, but excuse my lack of knowing but how would one put himself/herself through an academy? are there specials academies i have to go through or certain places i have to go?

i tried to google it but didnt know what exactly i needed to ask. there was a reserve academy offered by the local college by me but i think with budget cuts it has beeen "temporarily" suspended until they can re open it. if anyone knows of one please let me know, i live in the ventura county/ la county.

Funny how the OP specifically asked for the opinions of LEOs and the same LEO obsessed posters that we see in OT feel the need to inject their non LEO opinion.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by waterfern

Watch come Wednesday. It's going to be a landslide. Forget the polls, look at the census data, trump screwed up. Tell you what though if trump had made peace with woman and hispancis he could have pulled this off. But he kept at em. Just couldn't shut up.

Funny how the OP specifically asked for the opinions of LEOs and the same LEO obsessed posters that we see in OT feel the need to inject their non LEO opinion.

Exactly why I said something lol. I love how people who know nothing about the job try and give advice on how to get the job.... "Well my friend got hired!" Means jack squat.

To the OP. I am not sure what academies down south offer self-sponsor. I was self sponsored in the central valley. Took me a year after graduation to find a full time slot. I was lucky (depends how you look at it) and found a p/t academy. We met Friday night and all day Sat/Sun for 11 months. (Yes I know!) I worked full time for the first 7 months then focused only on the academy for the last few till graduation. It was hard, and we lost over 50% of my class, and about 75% of the graduates now have jobs, so there is no guarantee, but it was worth it for me.

If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me, I'll do my best to answer all of them.

Funny how the OP specifically asked for the opinions of LEOs and the same LEO obsessed posters that we see in OT feel the need to inject their non LEO opinion.

Boy is that the truth. It just reinforces my theory that most of the anti LE vitriol you see in OT is posted by people who were rejected from employment in the field and have become bitter at LEO's in general because of their own shortcomings.

The academy I went to a group of 4 of us friends, only one got hired 2 years later. Guess what? He had military experience...

Use your schooling to get you a intern position with a police agency, gain references and work experience with said dept/ agency. Then apply for self sponsorship/ sponsorship. Otherwise your just another cookie cutter academy graduate looking for a job. Trust me this way will be a lot less painful...when you got a agency to bat for you..

Boy is that the truth. It just reinforces my theory that most of the anti LE vitriol you see in OT is posted by people who were rejected from employment in the field and have become bitter at LEO's in general because of their own shortcomings.

School is good. While a degree may not be required for the job, it does show a higher level of education attained. Don't go for Criminal Justice like everyone else. The college classes that have been the most helpful to me in this job were english and communication studies. You can be the best cop in the world, but if you can't string two sentences together, bad guy walks. You have to be able to know how to write, as on this job you document everything. And I've found communication very helpful because on this job, thats what you do. Public speaking, interpersonal communication, body language, all that stuff is very relevant and useful to the beat cop.

Military. I'm in the U.S. Army reserves. The USAR has given me many advantages and unique opportunities. Its something I don't regret and have enjoyed. I do believe my military service did help be appear to be a more desirable candidate when I applied for law enforcement. Having said that, it can be very challenging to do both. ESPECIALLY during academy and probation. Nor will the military give you an automatic shoe-in guarantee. I was established in the military before I joined law enforcement. Understand that if you do enlist, you will be gone for quite awhile with basic training, AIT and such.

Its difficult to say what will make you more desirable. Contrary to the Calguns group-think, law enforcement hiring standards are quite high, and as you've found out its a difficult field to get in to. I know with my agency, less than 1% of those that apply pass all the testing and get accepted. And from that 1%, many will fail out/quite/be fired from the academy or probationary period.

Whatever you do, do not do nothing. Don't wait for a phone call or pin your hopes on one application. Perhaps your desired agency has a volunteer program. If the department is small enough, get out there so your face gets recognized. Continue your education. Do ride alongs. Get involved. Get to know your local department.

Where in the process did the other dept's cut you? Was there anything specific they advised you to work on?

Truthfully, the candidate pool is deep with both pre-service and laterals. Not all applicants but enough have some or all the the following: 4 year (or more) degrees, military service, language skills, and lateral experience. Depts can be selective and only take highly qualified/experienced applicants through the process.

To beef-up your application, get your 4 year degree (in something that interests you), intern/volunteer/work as police aid, after getting your degree put yourself through an academy (if the hiring situation isn't looser), then work as a reserve.

Thank you guys for all the help and input. When I was cut it was in the background section. I was never DQ'ed only told I was not wing selected at this time and there were more desirable candidates.

I'm not letting a couple agencies discourage me I'm goin to keep trying. Go back to school and perhaps do the reserves in the army.

There are a couple agencies who have explorers around me but after taking your guys advice and lookin into them it seems most of them are closed right now due to California being broke. I'm going to try to do everything I can.

As far as getting my BA any certain area I should look into? I already have my AA in CJ and wanted to diversifie and get something not CJ. Heard English was a good one since LE takes a lot of report writing. Was also thinking business in case I need a fall back plan.

When you self sponsor through an academy is it full time Monday through Friday just like if an agencie was putting you through it? If so I'm not sure i would be able to do that I have to work and I'm currently working full time

Thank you guys for all the help and input. When I was cut it was in the background section. I was never DQ'ed only told I was not wing selected at this time and there were more desirable candidates.

I'm not letting a couple agencies discourage me I'm goin to keep trying. Go back to school and perhaps do the reserves in the army.

There are a couple agencies who have explorers around me but after taking your guys advice and lookin into them it seems most of them are closed right now due to California being broke. I'm going to try to do everything I can.

As far as getting my BA any certain area I should look into? I already have my AA in CJ and wanted to diversifie and get something not CJ. Heard English was a good one since LE takes a lot of report writing. Was also thinking business in case I need a fall back plan.

When you self sponsor through an academy is it full time Monday through Friday just like if an agencie was putting you through it? If so I'm not sure i would be able to do that I have to work and I'm currently working full time

Going to the academy is a full time job M-F and sometimes weekends. Unless you can find somewhere where they are offering a reserve type of academy which works something like night school, working and attending the academy is pretty much impossible.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by waterfern

Watch come Wednesday. It's going to be a landslide. Forget the polls, look at the census data, trump screwed up. Tell you what though if trump had made peace with woman and hispancis he could have pulled this off. But he kept at em. Just couldn't shut up.

"As far as getting my BA any certain area I should look into? I already have my AA in CJ and wanted to diversifie and get something not CJ. Heard English was a good one since LE takes a lot of report writing. Was also thinking business in case I need a fall back plan."

Get the degree in something that interests you or can make for a good career either as a back-up or in retirement. Several of my partners have "art-ish" degrees because that's what interested them at college. Any degree will have you writing plenty.

"When you self sponsor through an academy is it full time Monday through Friday just like if an agencie was putting you through it? If so I'm not sure i would be able to do that I have to work and I'm currently working full time "

A full-time academy is a M-F 7-4 type environment for 18 to 26 weeks depending on where you go. An extended format academy is a few weekday nights and weekends for about 10 months depending on what academy. Even the extended format is demanding. A fulltime job would present challenges in the program.

Go to the Calif POST web site and they might be able to help you. You don't mention the area you reside so its tough to steer you to an academy. I know San Joaquin Delta College (Stockton) has a part time academy class every year. Agencies have been recruiting right out of the class. My son went through it and has been hired as well as most of his classmates.

Thank you guys for all the help and input. When I was cut it was in the background section. I was never DQ'ed only told I was not wing selected at this time and there were more desirable candidates.

I'm not letting a couple agencies discourage me I'm goin to keep trying. Go back to school and perhaps do the reserves in the army.

There are a couple agencies who have explorers around me but after taking your guys advice and lookin into them it seems most of them are closed right now due to California being broke. I'm going to try to do everything I can.

As far as getting my BA any certain area I should look into? I already have my AA in CJ and wanted to diversifie and get something not CJ. Heard English was a good one since LE takes a lot of report writing. Was also thinking business in case I need a fall back plan.

When you self sponsor through an academy is it full time Monday through Friday just like if an agencie was putting you through it? If so I'm not sure i would be able to do that I have to work and I'm currently working full time

I would think after some emails with you, that the only problem that you have and a lot of people have is that your looking for a agency to put you through the academy. Therefore, that agency has a huge pool of candidates to hire from which makes getting a job a lot harder.

It is my belief after being around law enforcement for close to 20 years that there is less than 10 to 15 agencies in California that will send you to the police academy, all the other agencies are looking for you to already have a academy behind you.

I would think after some emails with you, that the only problem that you have and a lot of people have is that your looking for a agency to put you through the academy. Therefore, that agency has a huge pool of candidates to hire from which makes getting a job a lot harder.

It is my belief after being around law enforcement for close to 20 years that there is less than 10 to 15 agencies in California that will send you to the police academy, all the other agencies are looking for you to already have a academy behind you.

Therefore, these agencies can be very picky about whom they take.

Ouch... That really puts a damper on things. I really want to attend an academy but I support myself San Joaquin Delta college looks like the way to go but they are booked.

As far as getting my BA any certain area I should look into? I already have my AA in CJ and wanted to diversifie and get something not CJ. Heard English was a good one since LE takes a lot of report writing. Was also thinking business in case I need a fall back plan.

You have the right idea. i highly recommend getting a degree in something completely unrelated to LE and, more importantly, something that will give you marketable skills to get a non-LE job. Police work is not something you can learn in a classroom, so you might as well learn something that can be while you're in college. Good luck.

Thank you guys for all the help and input. When I was cut it was in the background section. I was never DQ'ed only told I was not wing selected at this time and there were more desirable candidates.

I'm not letting a couple agencies discourage me I'm goin to keep trying. Go back to school and perhaps do the reserves in the army.

There are a couple agencies who have explorers around me but after taking your guys advice and lookin into them it seems most of them are closed right now due to California being broke. I'm going to try to do everything I can.

As far as getting my BA any certain area I should look into? I already have my AA in CJ and wanted to diversifie and get something not CJ. Heard English was a good one since LE takes a lot of report writing. Was also thinking business in case I need a fall back plan.

When you self sponsor through an academy is it full time Monday through Friday just like if an agencie was putting you through it? If so I'm not sure i would be able to do that I have to work and I'm currently working full time

To tack onto what Redvines said, do get your degree in something completely unrelated. A hard science course would be good as I am finding out now that a degree in those areas would be real beneficial now.

You will write a lot, but most of your report writing will be dumbed down to a 5th grade level which will be explained to you in the academy. I was always advised to continually read to keep my language skills up in the chance you do get promoted and do have to start writing things such as grants.

But business is also a good fall back as there are plenty of jobs requiring such a degree and knowledge right now as well.